


Magazines and Multiverses

by unfolded73



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M, Fluff and Angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-29
Updated: 2017-05-29
Packaged: 2018-11-06 11:09:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,532
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11034966
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unfolded73/pseuds/unfolded73
Summary: This fic has everything! Fluff, angst, vaguely anti-Trump comments (yes, really), quantum physics, and a decidedly pro-Millian stance (because after the stuff out of FT5 yesterday, that seemed needed).





	Magazines and Multiverses

**Author's Note:**

> This fic has everything! Fluff, angst, vaguely anti-Trump comments (yes, really), quantum physics, and a decidedly pro-Millian stance (because after the stuff out of FT5 yesterday, that seemed needed).

“This country is going to hell in a handbasket,” Emma said, flipping the page of her magazine and reaching for her coffee mug. 

There was a pause, and she looked up to see Killian across the kitchen table, completely engrossed in his latest book. 

Another pause, and something in his senses must have told him that there was a fragment of conversation hanging out there in the air, waiting to be responded to. 

“Hmm?” he said, his eyes still moving over the words on his page. 

“I said, this country is going to hell in a handbasket. I know Storybrooke’s isolated, but there is some terrible shit going on out there in the world.” 

Her husband looked up at her and blinked, either uncertain about what she was referring to or uncertain what the words were that had come out of her mouth. He set his book down, ready to give her his full attention now. “That magazine seems to vex you more often than not, love.” 

Emma flipped to the cover, looking at the flowing script spelling out _“The Atlantic”_ across the top. “I sent money to public radio, and I got this subscription for free. And it made me feel like an adult to have it,” she sort of whined. 

Killian raised an eyebrow. “My wife, the sheriff, savior, mother of a teenager needs a magazine subscription to feel like an adult? Last I checked, you were very much an _adult_.” He inflected the last word with so much filth that she actually blushed. And then glared at him for getting her off track. 

“My point is, we’re all nice and separated from the rest of the country up here in our magically created town, but we still technically live in the United States and things out there are really bad, Killian.” 

“I gather there’s a tyrant in charge, from what little I’ve read,” he said mildly, as if it didn’t concern him. 

“Yeah, to say the least.” 

“The governance of this land makes little sense to me. It’s quite complex.” He took a sip of his coffee. “Give me a single tyrannical king whose rule I can flout, don’t bother me with all these presidents and congressmen and whatever else.” He gestured with his hook for emphasis. “I can hardly keep track of ignoring the commands of the whole lot of them.” 

Emma sighed, looking back at her magazine. “I wonder if Regina could just poof the whole town over the border to Canada. It’s not that far.” 

Killian picked up his book again. “As long as we stay next to the ocean, tell her to have at it.” 

~*~

Emma’s political angst was one thing, but it didn’t compare to the storm that, unbeknownst to her, had been brewing that morning as Killian read his book. That book was the first of what turned out to be many on a subject that he quickly became fascinated with: quantum physics. 

“But how can it be a wave and a particle at the same time?” he complained to Henry. “That doesn’t make any logical sense.” 

“Well, I don’t think that it’s literally a wave and a particle, it’s just that at the quantum level, there’s no better analogy to things in our physical world. And using the math for waves for some things and particles for others is what works, I guess,” Henry said. 

Emma looked up from her phone, where she had been dutifully liking the millionth picture of her baby brother that her mother had posted on Facebook that week. “Oh no, Henry, not you too.” 

“What? It’s interesting stuff, Mom.” He puffed out his chest, proud to be discussing grown-up topics with his stepfather, and Emma felt instantly bad for discouraging it. Or for letting womankind down by not being as interested in science as the two men in her household, maybe. The trouble was, she’d never gotten much of a formal education, moved from school to school as she bounced around between foster families and group homes. And then dropping out of high school and ending up in prison hadn’t helped, although at least she’d gotten her GED while she was incarcerated. Still, it made her self-conscious when the people around her knew more than she did about high-minded topics. 

“Okay, okay, carry on,” she said, smiling at them as she scrolled past her mother’s post to a picture of Robyn. And then one of Gideon. “There are too many fucking babies in this town,” she muttered under her breath. 

A few days later, she came to bed to find Killian reading and looking extremely, as he would say, ‘vexed.’ “What’s wrong, babe?” she asked as she sat down on the bed and pulled her jeans off. 

“Multiple universes, Swan, that’s what’s wrong.” 

She looked at him with elevated eyebrows. “Yeah, we’ve traveled to some of them. You’re _from_ one of them.” 

“Not different realms, love. Different universes, pressed together like so many bubbles of dish soap.” He closed the book, which was by Stephen Hawking, a name she actually recognized, and tossed it toward the foot of the bed. 

“What’s the difference?” 

“A different universe is like one where a different choice is made, and it splits off from this one.” 

Emma snorted. “Like there’s a universe in which I didn’t have a third cup of coffee this morning? Because honestly–” 

“Like there’s a universe where Gideon killed you and you stayed dead. Or where I never made it back from the Underworld. Or where I wasn’t able to fight the darkness and destroyed everyone we love. Or where we didn’t fall through Zelena’s time portal together. Or we _did_ , but–” 

“Okay, shh,” she said, climbing up on the bed and over his lap. “I get it.” 

“So many times we overcame the odds to be with each other, love, which means there are an infinite number of universes where we didn’t. Where one of us is mourning the other. Or worse.” 

Emma stroked his cheek, her eyes full of fondness. “Maybe, but we’re here, together. I don’t think there’s any use in dwelling on all those wrong turns.” 

“But if they _exist_ somewhere…” 

She thought about that. It was disconcerting, the thought that there was an Emma, a thousand Emmas, a billion – who hadn’t gotten her happy ending. 

“Okay, but also,” she said, moving her hand back to comb her fingers through his hair, “there would be universes where your brother didn’t die. Or where _Milah_ didn’t die. Where you got to live out a happy life with her.” 

He tilted his head. “But then I wouldn’t be with you.” He smiled sadly. “I’d have died generations before you were even born.” 

“I know.” She kissed him gently on the lips. “Killian, don’t you know I’d give all of this up in a second if it meant you could have avoided all of those years of pain?” 

He grabbed her bare thigh, pulling her further onto his lap and kissing her hard. His lips parted with hers and he shook his head back and forth. She wasn’t sure if he was denying the idea that she would make such a sacrifice, so she pulled back, putting her hands on his shoulders and looking him in the eye. 

“I would, Killian. I met Milah in the Underworld, remember? It wasn’t hard to understand why you loved her so much. It would be pretty selfish of me to say it was worth it to me for her to die, and for you to endure so much grief and suffering, just so that I could have you as my husband at the end of it. I would never.” 

“It’s no use thinking that way, love. As you say, had she not died, our paths would never have crossed.” 

“Haha, see?” She grinned at him, feeling enormously clever. “It’s no use thinking that way.” 

He rolled his eyes. “Swan–” 

“I don’t care if there are a billion Killians out there living a billion different lives. All I care about is this one, right here.” She kissed him on the nose. “And I care about this one a lot.” 

He toppled her over then, his hand smacking on her thigh and then sliding up to tickle her side, making her giggle and kick her heel against the back of his calf. His mirth relaxed into something softer and sweeter, the more they lay there looking at each other. 

“Of all the possible universes, I can’t help but feel like I ended up in the best one when I’m here in your embrace,” he said. 

Emma grinned in spite of herself. “That’s either the most romantic or the sappiest thing you’ve ever said,” she groaned. 

He kissed her again, and at some point during the next few minutes, his book on quantum physics got kicked off the bed and onto the floor. A little while later, her stack of glossy magazines full of worries tumbled off of her bedside table when her arm shot out in a moment of uncontrolled ecstasy. 

Neither of them cared. For now, this moment, this place, this town, this universe was the only one that mattered.


End file.
